A Tauranga business owner has reduced her team’s hours because sales have dropped since paid parking started on her street.

Excelso Coffee Roasters owner Carrie Evans said she had about 55 fewer people in and was down $1000 a week since the start of August at her Third Ave business.

Tauranga City Council introduced paid on-street parking in the city centre fringe between the eastern end of Fourth Ave and Park St, north of the CBD, on August 18.

From August 4, new two-hour parking limits were applied to some CBD-fringe streets, as far south as Eighth Ave.

Evans said she had reduced some staff members’ hours and if sales didn’t improve in a few weeks, she may have to reduce opening hours and think about letting people go.

Now that people weren’t parking on the street all day, she was missing the customers who would stop in for a coffee on the way to work.

Staff could not afford the $10 a day it cost to park in the area, but they started early so there were also safety concerns about them parking further out and walking in the dark, she said.

The area surrounding her business was mainly industrial, so Evans did not see why paid parking was needed.

She said she believed the issues the council was trying to fix with paid parking were “not as big a problem” as it made out.

“It’s not solving anything because now you have a whole lot of empty carpark spaces on roads. You are not helping your local businesses by doing that.”

Evans said she and other businesses were questioning the viability of their leases.

Some businesses were “upset, really worked up” and looking at their future in the area, she said.

Vetro Mediterranean Food owner Liz Cerdeira said her staff were parking miles away because of the new parking charges. Photo / John Borren

Vetro Mediterranean Food owner Liz Cerdeira said she also lost the all-day parking customers who would stop in.

There was a slight decline in sales and people’s average spend was also down, she said.

This could be because of the economy but also people were spending less time in store, so they didn’t have to pay for parking, Cerdeira said.

The 20-minute grace period introduced in September, where people could park for 20 minutes for free without being fined, was “really positive”, but Cerdeira wanted it advertised on the parking machines.

She put signs at the front of the store to let people know.

Parking for staff was “a nightmare” – one team member parked in Judea and walked 30 minutes. She also had to pay another to start earlier because the buses did not coincide with her original start time.

The two-hour time limited side of Tauranga's Fifth Ave is mostly free of cars. Photo / Brydie Thompson

“The staff are parking miles away and are super stressed. They’re arriving to empty streets where they could have been parking, where they used to park.”

Cerdeira questioned if the negative impact it was worth it for the council because she doubted it was making much money.

“It’s just depressing to see a completely empty street. It feels like a ghost town down here.”

The council needed to reverse the new time limits and paid parking, she said.

Mastercraft Kitchens managing director Colin Campbell didn’t have enough parks on-site for his team so some now had to park on the berm.

Mastercraft Kitchens managing director Colin Campbell said paid parking in the industrial area of Third Ave and Glasgow St is "ludicrous". Photo / Brydie Thompson

Those staff risked a $70 fine, and Campbell told staff he would pay it.

The majority of people parking on his berm, however, were not his staff, which made it impossible for him to mow it on weekdays.

He had received letters from the council in the past saying the berm needed to be maintained, so now mowed it on weekends.

Campbell said paid parking in an industrial area was “ludicrous”.

“It just doesn’t seem to be a strategy that’s worked for them. It’s left the streets free, but I don’t think it’s creating the revenue that they were hoping for.”

The carparks on Third Ave used to be full before the parking charges were introduced on August 18. Photo / Brydie Thompson

Council transport system operations manager Shawn Geard said as of September 30 there were $126,327 in transactions in the new CBD fringe parking zone.

The council understood parking changes could be challenging, he said.

It was a difficult time for businesses, which is why the changes had been deferred previously, but it couldn’t continue, Geard said.

“The cost of parking is then shifted to ratepayers and doesn’t reflect a user-pay system.”

The city centre was “on the rise” and recent spending data was positive, he said.

The parking changes would support on-street parking turnover and encourage commuters to park in parking buildings or off-street carparks, Geard said.

Berm parking was prohibited where signposted and the council would educate people in the first instance but fine people after persistent breaches, he said.

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.